Compared with Indonesia, which is only ranked 134th in the world but continues to grow in strength due to the continuous naturalization of players, perhaps the Bahrain team is the goal that the national football team should strive to win.
Although the Bahrain team (81st) is higher than the national football team (88th), the strength of the team is difficult to match the world ranking. At the Asian Cup earlier this year, Bahrain lost to South Korea and Japan by the same score of 1-3, and defeated Malaysia 1-0 in the group stage and Jordan, who later finished runners-up in the Asian Cup.
After the Asian Cup, the Bahrain Football Association decided to change the coach, and Croatian coach Taladzic took over. In the 2018 season, Taladzic once coached the Henan team of the Chinese Super League, and after leading the team to play seven rounds, he was dismissed because of poor results. Having coached in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, Taladzic is very familiar with Bahraini and West Asian football. What is less well known is that he led Jeddah United to the AFC Champions League 20 years ago, led Riffa to a runners-up finish in the 2005/06 Gulf Champions League and finished runners-up in the AFC Cup with Kuwait FC in 2011. Prior to his appointment as Bahrain's national team manager, he also led Cartier to the Bahrain Copa del Rey in 2022.
Taladzic was named Al Jazeera Asia's Best Coach of the 2010/11 season, the best coach in the Arab world and the best coach in the Jordanian League, but that was more than a decade ago. In the last 10 years, Taladzic has spent most of his time resting, with only about two years and eight months in charge, and has coached four clubs, three of which have left early, and only Cartier in Bahrain has been in charge for more than seven months. Before taking over as coach of the Bahrain team at the end of February this year, he spent one year and nine months on leisure. After taking office, he led the team to 2 wins and 2 draws in the round of 36, but only defeated Nepal, the weakest fish belly in the double group, with draws at home against Yemen and away against the United Arab Emirates.
The vast majority of Bahrain's players play in their home leagues, captained by 1.80m-tall, 38-year-old goalkeeper Jafar, who has made 162 appearances for the team. Only midfielder Madan (Ajman, UAE) and striker Al Hellal (Boleslav, Czech Republic) played in the 26-man squad for the round of 36 in June, playing in overseas leagues. In addition, midfielders Halledan and Mallon have a resume in Europe. Hellal has been playing in the Czech league for six seasons and at 1.94 meters tall he is a rare high school striker in West Asia. He has beaten Serbia, Qatar and other strong teams, and in the group stage of the Asian Cup, he also scored the winning goal to defeat Jordan and bring Bahrain to the round of 16. However, Al Hellal's form has been sluggish since the Asian Cup, with just one goal in four games against Nepal.
Bahrain also has naturalized players, midfielder Ated (Nigerian) and central defender Benardi (Moroccan), who play in the Bahraini league and have limited strength.
Bahrain's attacking points were scattered, and the team's nine goals after the Asian Cup came from eight players. Judging from the previous games, Taladzic's Bahrain team mainly played the 442 and 4231 formations, and also tried 352. In order to score points, Taladzic prefers to use a two-striker set-up to ensure that the team has enough pressure on the offensive end.